Panama is magnet for middle-class immigrants

Panama's economic boom and political stability is proving a magnet for middle-class immigrants.

The trend can be seen in the large number of foreigners who hold senior positions in companies and of retirees flooding in from overseas, said Raul Moreira, president-elect of Panama's College of Economists.
Last year's economic growth in Panama – 11.2 percent – was second in the world only to China's.

Foreigners who have been in the country for more than two years will be able to legalise their status, subject to paying relevant fees.

The process, called “Panama, Crisol de Razas" (Melting Pot) will begin on 16 July in Atlapa and continue for four months, indicated the director of the country’s Immigration Service (SNM), María Cristina González.

Like Miami, Panama is a magnet for Latin Americans and Europeans, who in the past five years have come to the country to invest and work.

An article in Mipunto.com analyzed how the protection of the advantages that Panama offers so that capital and people will come and settle in the country brings tens of thousands of foreigners and hundreds of companies who then decide to stay, attracted by the climate, business environment, agility in starting a business, air transport facilities, and the effervescence caused by the economic expansion of the Canal and the development of the location as a logistics hub.

Costa Rica and Panama will have to import about 300,000 workers over the next few years to ensure the harvest of their agricultural products and the modernization of the Panama Canal, an official from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

The IOM director for Mexico and Central America, José Pirés, said these countries will have to import workers from Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba or Brazil to meet the demand for workers.

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